Fugitive Chang Wen-yi arrested, sent back home

Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Chang Wen-yi arrives at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport escorted by two security officials yesterday after being repatriated from Macau.

PHOTO: CNA

Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Chang Wen-yi (張文儀), who has been on the wanted list since December 2004 on charges of fraud, was repatriated from Macau yesterday, officials from the Ministry of Justices' Investigation Bureau said yesterday.

Chang, accompanied by bureau officials, arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon and was taken to a jail in Taichung, a bureau statement said.

COLLUSION

In September 2004, Chang received a one-year sentence for colluding with former Kuangsan Enterprise Group (廣三集團) president and former Taichung Business Bank (台中企銀) board chairman Tseng Cheng-jen (曾正仁) in an insider trading case.

Chang fled to China in August 2004 and was put on the wanted list that December.

Bureau officials said that Chang was believed to have been staying in Shanghai, where he allegedly made investments in and ran plasticware and footwear manufacturing plants.

Officials at the bureau tracked Chang as he was leaving from Shanghai for Macau, the statement said.

COOPERATION

After the agents informed Macau security authorities of the fugitive, local enforcement officials arrested him in the territory.

The bureau said that Macau authorities agreed to repatriate Chang in accordance with the Kinmen Accord.

Struck in 1990, the Kinmen Accord is a mechanism by which cross-strait illegal immigrants and criminals can be returned to their point of origin.

TRANSACTIONS

Chang and Tseng were involved in illegal stock transactions worth more than NT$8.4 billion (US$254 million) in 1997 while Chang served as chairman of a Kuangsan Enterprise Group subsidiary.

He was charged with violating the Securities Transaction Law (證券交易法).

Tseng was sentenced to 11 years in 2004 for embezzlement and other scandals before he fled to China.